Chapter 1
Pipsqueak sighed.
It wasn’t like him, the normally cheerful and peppy Trottingham born colt, to sigh so sorrowfully like that but, looking over the empty seats around him, he regained his reasoning for why.
He was now on day 40 of Cutie Mark Daycamp, but still had no progress to getting an actual cutie mark of his own. He had found things that he quite enjoyed like jam making, cooking, book organizing, and even tap dancing like his friend Tender Taps.
Heck, he’d even found things he didn’t quite enjoy, but was strangely good at. Record keeping for camp funds was a strange one, but something told him it wasn’t a cutie mark getting activity.
But still, the empty chairs around him only served to remind him how many of his campmates had left him behind.
Kettle Corn had transitioned into being a co-counselor for a few weeks before getting a sort of apprenticeship at the Foal Free Press, newly not run by actual foals. Pip was somewhat happy about this development, both because he was happy a friend got an opportunity, but also because he wouldn’t be stuck drawing circles over and over again.
Skeedaddle found his talent in racing not too long after the whole Blank Flank Camp incident, right after tieing with Scootaloo, something she was very not a fan of. He then went on to train in archery with a pony in town as becoming a racepony at that age was twelve different kinds of illegal.
The other few ponies of the camp quickly faded afterwards, by day 20 leaving three, one of them dropping off by day 30.
And that just left…
“Good job, Pipsqueak!” The Trottish stallionheard from behind him, drawing him from thoughts at the right time to feel the hoof slap on his back.
Now on the ground, Pipsqueak looked up to see Sweetie Belle staring down at him, a soft and confused smile on her face as her hoof still hovered in the air.
After a moment, she extended a hoof for the smaller colt, which he was slightly slow to take. But after standing himself up, Pipsqueak was unable to hold back a deep, saddened sigh.
Taking a step towards little Pipsqueak, Sweetie looked down at him with a small frown. “What’s wrong, Pip? I thought you were doing pretty great.” She looked over to the drawing on the table, trying her hardest to hold back a grimace at how poorly drawn it was. She knew not everyone was born being great at art, but she couldn’t tell if it was a self portrait or a tree on a hill.
“I don’t think I’ll be getting a mark in drawing.” Pipsqueak muttered, scratching at the floorboards of the activities room with a hoof. “Art just isn’t for me.”
“Well, maybe we can try something more active tomorrow?” She beamed a bit forcefully, doing her best to remain both hopeful and positive so the small colt wasn’t disheartened.
But the damage seemed to have already been done. Pipsqueak dipped his head low as he shambled past Sweetie Belle with a soft grumble. “Sure, whatever.” He muttered as he passed through the doorway.
Upon leaving the room. Pipsqueak continued walking in a random direction, staring down two feet in front of his hooves. This, of course, caused him to bump into someone almost instantly.
Falling back onto his rump, the smaller colt being very unable to knock over a pail of water much less…
Rumble.
The handsome, muscular, and very opinionated colt felt like a brick wall as Pipsqueak knocked into him gently. And, of course, Rumble could only extend a grey hoof with a very cool smirk.
“You alright, Pip? The grey colt asked, pulling his smaller friend up with only his own strength. “You’re not looking too good there. Frustrated?”
Despite himself, Pipsqueak couldn’t help but nod gently. If there was anyone who could see right through any of his emotions, it was Rumble. Although they weren’t the closest friends before, their 40 days together had really added up.
Which is why Pip was only somewhat surprised when Rumble sided up with him, wrapping a wing around him andpulling him close into a hug. It only lasted a second before Rumble let Pipsqueak, but it still meant the world to him.
“Let’s just try even harder tomorrow. We’ll get there eventually.” Rumble said with a smile. And yet it was so much different from Sweetie Belle’s. While hers forced out a half-hearted hope that Pipsqueak would find something eventually, Rumble’s smile was warm, friendly, and had just enough doubt that it reminded Pipsqueak they were in it together.
Briefly giving Rumble a hug back, pathetically attempting to wrap his hooves around his neck before giving up later, right before it got weird.
Rumble just ruffled a hoof through Pipsqueak’s brown mane in a pseudo-brotherly fashion, a soft, sweet grin on his face. “So, you headin’ home for the day?”
Little Pipsqueak gave a nod. “Mhm, mum’s probably got a haypie in the oven right now.” Just the thought of it made him bust into a large, more Pipsqueak-esque grin. But then it died down to a questioning look, Pip tilting his head. “Are you heading back to town too?”
With a short laugh, Rumble shook his head. “Nah, I’m gonna be waiting for Scoot to finish cleaning up. Got a few new Wonderbolt tricks to show off before Rainbow Dash can get to her first. You gonna be alright to get home by yourself?”
Pipsqueak took a moment to side-eye the expanse of forest that he had to walk through in order to get home, very easy for him to get lost in as he didn’t know the directions like Rumble seemed to.
But he looked back to Rumble with a strange amount of confidence. “Yup! Got everything memorized.” With that, he trotted off before Rumble could question what he’d even memorized.
Obviously he went off in the wrong direction.
It took Pipsqueak a good few minutes to realize he was horribly lost, and even longer to admit to himself that he was, indeed, lost. By that point the colt had taken so many turns and routes that he was very frighteningly turned around.
What was one a sunset lighting his way home had quickly turned into moonlight that just barely lit the dense forest surrounding him.
Pipsqueak’s first instinct was to sit down and stay in place, wait for Rumble, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, or some other pony to save him. A search party would be out eventually, maybe once his mother noticed he was late for dinner.
But, just at the moment Pip thought of his mother’s delicious haypie, he could hear a low rumble that seemed to be coming from everywhere around him, shaking him to his very core. Bolting up from his grass seat, he tried his hardest to find where the creature making that sound was, but night blindness was a thing and his panicked spinning and glancing at every shadow before moving to the next one he could see with even more panic.
After a few seconds of this, the colt took off running, his adrenaline taking him as fast as his stumpy legs could take him. Right off in a random direction, but he didn’t care so long as he got away from that horrific creature.
But even as Pipsqueak ran faster and faster into the forest, the creature always managed to keep up with him, its low grumbling and growling ringing in his ears right along with the pounding of his heartbeat.
The short colt could already feel a burning in all of his poor, tiny legs. Even still, he kept it up. What would happen when his legs finally gave out was almost entirely a problem for future Pipsqueak.
But future Pipsqueak quickly turned into present Pipsqueak with the great equalizer of a moderately sized rock.
Tripping over this moderately sized rock, Pipsqueak faceplanted hard, sliding harshly along the ground for a good few inches before flopping forwards onto his back.
He stared blankly at the night sky above him, dazed and confused as to why he could only see half of it.
And yet he wasn’t able to focus on that for long, as the loud growling surrounded him yet again. His ears flicked and swished about to try and pinpoint where it was coming from, but they seemed to be as useless as his eye.
He tried his hardest to roll back over onto his hooves and take off running yet again, but he just couldn’t make his body respond. All he could manage was rolling onto his side, wrapping his forehooves around his stomach and waiting for the beast to strike at any moment.
A moment turned to moments, which then turned to minutes, making Pipsqueak wonder why he wasn’t getting eaten alive by Timberwolves or something.
Opening the eye he didn’t even know he was clenching shut, he looked around in hopes the monster saw him and decided on waiting for a meal, not a snack.
But he was soon quivering in fear once he heard the growling yet again.
Then he was stuck questioning why he could feel his stomach growling along with it.
After a loooooooooong amount of figuring, Pipsqueak began to laugh. It was all he could do in this situation, reveling in his idiocy while also being over the moon with relief due to not being eaten.
He rolled back over onto his back, relaxing with a slight yawn as he stared up at the moonlit sky. All that running had tired the poor colt out, even it it meant nothing at all. All he felt like doing was shutting his eyes and taking a long nap while he waited for the search party that was probably already on its way.
But no matter how tired he felt, Pipsqueak couldn’t let go of the fact that he’d not only lied to Rumble, but he’d lied poorly. Once word got out of him getting lost in the forest, there was no way Rumble was going to trust him ever again.
So, Pipsqueak resolved at that moment to get home without any help, by any means necessary. But how was he gonna get out of the forest without a map?
Looking at the starry sky, Pipsqueak thought of anything that could help him through this dilemma.
And then he spotted a shining, glimmering star out of the corner of his eye. Looking directly at it, he could easily see the brightest and somewhat biggest star staring back at him. It seemed familiar, and he had to wrack his brain on why it was important.
Then he remembered: The north star.
He remembered his mother telling him that the north star would always guide him home.
She was absolutely wrong and that was a very dangerous thing for her to tell her son, but in this case she wasn’t wrong. Thankfully, Ponyville was situated due north of the forest.
With his mother’s advice and absolutely no geographical knowledge or sense in mind, Pipsqueak flipped to his hooves, kept his eye to the sky, and began walking.
After bumping into a tree seconds later, he decided that maybe just glancing at the stars every now and then was a better idea.
Following the stars seemed to be quite easy for Pipsqueak, as he was just walking in one direction as he weaved through trees and stepped very carefully over any rocks that crossed his path.
It didn’t take the colt very long to reach the edge of the forest, it really not being a very big forest but being very easy to get lost in if you circle a tree for a few minutes while wandering aimlessly in the dark.
With a bit of a skip to his uneasy, limping step, Pipsqueak emerged from the forest. Seeing the Ponyville lights in the distance, he gave a small grin.
And then proceeded to collapse on the soft grass once again, this time to a soft flash of white.
“Pipsqueak?” The aforementioned colt heard vaguely from a slight distance, then followed up by the soft trotting of foalish hooves towards him. “Are you alright?”
Barely lifting his head up, Pipsqueak regarded Rumble with a soft, groaning agreement.
Upon Pipsqueak raising his head, Rumble could see what exactly had happened to his friend’s right eye. There was a sizable gash right down the center of it, and it seemed to be preventing it from opening which was fine, as it seemed to be preventing all the blood from getting into it, instead staining that white and brown coat a blood red.
Freaking the heck out, Rumble reeled back as he spotted the still bleeding wound. He let out a panicked squeak, then looked around for any form of help for his injured, but completely oblivious, friend.
But then he looked behind himself, remembering that Nurse Redheart had given him a ‘just in case’ box of simple, useful medical supplies just in case the search party on its way wasn’t quick enough.
Bolting over to it quickly, Rumble dragged the surprisingly heavy box over to his wounded buddy, taking to the air and flapping his wings rapidly to pull it even faster.
The grey colt quickly took to cleaning Pipsqueak’s eye wound, much to the loud whining and thrashing about from the afflicted colt. After fighting with Pipsqueak to keep him safe, Rumble pulled out the gauze to try and cover up the actual bleeding. Then he paused to wonder just how to do the whole wrapping thing.
Placing a hoof on his friend’s, Rumble smiled down at Pipsqueak. “Just hold still and let me figure this out, alright?”
Not holding still, Pip nodded weakly and offered a soft grumble, but then froze mid nod to allow Rumble to do whatever he needed to do.
With that, Rumble placed a gauze pad on the problematic areas of the wound, then just wrapped the gauze around Pip’s head to hold the pads in place.
He obviously did it poorly, wrapping it unevenly and even having to tie it off in a bow at the back of Pip’s head, Even still, Rumble managed it and, after a bit of stress testing the bandage, couldn’t help but lift Pipsqueak slightly, then wrap his hooves tightly around his friend.
Pipsqueak, letting out a short sigh wrapped his hooves very very loosely around his savior. “Thanks, Rumble.”
“No prob, bud.” Rumble said with a cheeky, reassuring grin as he set down his friend. “Us blank flanks gotta stick together, right?” However, as he repositioned himself, Rumble could see a strange inaccuracy in Pipsqueak.
A cutie mark.
Placed directly on Pip’s rump was a cutie mark shaped like a compass, though the center seemed to be replaced with what looked to be a drawing of a star than any normal compass insides. Looked completely useless to actually navigate with, but that’s why it was just a butt drawing. For now.
Rumble couldn’t help but look down at Pip with a huge grin. “But it looks like I’m the only blank flank here now, right Pip?”
Pipsqueak just let out a small muttering of agreement and acceptance, not quite knowing or caring about what Rumble was talking about. Instead, he opted to shut his eye and maybe get to that nap he’d been interrupted from. Multiple times.
Knowing that Pipsqueak would probably be heavily miffed if he was interrupted, and also thinking that the nap would help Pip deal with the shock, Rumble just settled with settling down next to his friend. He wrapped his wing around his earth pony friend to keep him warm until the search party came to grab him. Telling him about his new mark would be a treat saved for the hospital bed, it seemed.
Rumble was so focused on fussing over Pipsqueak and making sure he was comfortable that he didn’t even notice the small white flash of light emanating from his backside.